Taylor doesn't have facts straight

Posted: Friday, January 14, 2000

By Desa Jacobsson

The good senator should contact himself like an elder statesman instead of a bully in need of reading lessons and a quart-sized jar of Tlinget viagra.

How many times must he be told that ANILCA specifies that a rural preference takes effect only when the resource declines? Since when has commercial, sports or recreational fishing been shut down because of subsistence use?

Perhaps this learned senator can explain the constitutional basis for the 1992 state statute which defines non-subsistence use areas. Do not speak to me of discrimination when that law, which he voted for, segregates Alaska Natives from the wild renewable resources. It is an act of oppression and it will destroy the culture of Alaska Natives. I do not know what that law means to him. To me, it means no Natives allowed.

Senator, personal use is not customary or traditional use, nor is it afforded protection under title VIII of ANILCA.

Furthermore, commercial fishermen in Southeast caught 29 million fish in this area. Sports users caught 158,000. Subsistence users caught 40,000. How will our 1 percent destroy those industries? Since when has commercial or sports use been closed because of subsistence?

Finally, if I have listened to misinformed ANILCA supporters and the rhetoric or AFN, who then, Senator Taylor, is your ventriloquist?